Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/265

 that he experimented in mesmerism at the time that he was preparing to write "Balsamo," and that he succeeded in "putting to sleep" one of his servants, who then became clairvoyant. However much truth there may be in this, there is no doubt that "magnetic influence," or telepathy, is very ingeniously employed to give the charlatan Balsamo (or Cagliostro) his supposed supernatural powers.

For the rest the romance, if somewhat formless, is full of a number of varied intrigues and interests. We meet the king's mistress, Madame Dubarry, and learn how, in spite of all opposition, she managed to get presented at Court. We enjoy once more the witty society of Dumas's favourite libertine, the Duc de Richelieu, whom we met, in earlier years, in "Mademoiselle de Bellisle," and view Louis Quinze himself en famille. The first faint rumblings of the coming thunder of the Revolution are heard; Marat appears on the scene; Rousseau is disappearing from it. Then there is the weird story of Balsamo's love for Lorenza, and that of Gilbert for Andrée de Tavernay—all are interwoven in this gigantic romance, which is itself only a beginning. Either because Dumas wearied of his interminable subject, or left it to Maquet to finish—possibly the lawsuit with the seven journals distracted the author's